St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3

Directions

From the Hamilton and Toronto area: Follow the Queen Elizabeth Way east-bound over the Garden Skyway and exit at Glendale Avenue. Follow Glendale Avenue (west), cross the lift bridge and turn right on Welland Canals Parkway.

Hours

Open year-round, seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Winter weekends (December to mid-March), from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Description

The St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3 is a fully accessible facility that includes: a lock-side Discovery Park featuring heritage and marine artifacts; a library and archives documenting early Black citizens of St. Catharines and greater Niagara; several exhibit galleries; and our award-winning exhibit Follow the North Star.

This exhibit explores the experiences of Black veterans from the 18th century, travellers arriving on the Underground Railroad and citizens finding freedom in a new land. Early settlers included Black veterans of the American Revolution. The construction of the Welland Canal spurred the development of the city of St. Catharines from the early 19th century through the early 20th century. Black citizens made a significant contribution to the community as sailors, shipbuilders and tradesmen, and as part of the "Colored Corps," a unit of Black militia formed during the War of 1812 who later kept peace in the rowdy worker settlements along the Welland Canal.